The Unarchiver and OsiriX

[Lifeisabeach]

@Lifeisabeach

I agree with all you've said.

From the very first post, the OP stated that he was told he needed Unarchiver and OsiriX. (Unarchiver was misinformation, I'm sure). OsiriX only runs on an Apple system which tended to imply that Windows platforms might not read it.

But as I pointed out, that need not be the case at all and advised that MicroDicom - a Windows-based viewer - and free, might do the trick if the OP had a PC or a friend with one. And, as you also say, there might be a Windows-based DICOM viewer embedded in the CD. Windows machine needed for that too.

As regards the PW, I again agree with you; but remember the OP was given a PW by the hospital.

Horos is Apple based and normally no problem. But there were PW problems.

The latest advice was to install the patient version of Osirix - a version I didn't even know about and only surfaced after much discussion with colleagues of mine and some digging around. And OsiriX was recommended by the hospital.

Whether the PW problem would be overcome, I cannot say. Surely it's up to the hospital to give the OP his/her legitimate right to view their images without all this hassle?

Anyway, thanks for your insights.

Ian

I missed that he said "the H" provided a password. That's what I get for trying to respond after working so late. This is all just really strange to me. I've had to import DICOM images from many different hospitals over the years made with a variety of PACS systems, and have never encountered a password-protected one. I'm somewhat familiar with OririX Lite (have it installed on my own iMac but haven't used it in a long time). I didn't see where the hospital said to try these apps either (still don't on a second read), which got me wondering if he was taking advice from friends rather than a route supported by the hospital IT staff. If the latter, then we may be making false assumptions here. For example, are we SURE that the zip file even contains the DICOM images?

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Waiting for a rely from Gina at Holos (customer services) who I've emailed this thread, if she can access it. She does confirm however that no p/w is required !

If you still get stuck after Horos gets back to you, I would like to suggest a different approach here. In spite of what you may have been told, that zip file might not even contain the images. I've never seen it that way, but I can't speak for every system out there in how these discs are made either. First, take a look at this page I'll link to below. They give an overview of how DICOM cds typically are organized. It varies from vendor-to-vendor, but it's a starting point.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3354356/figure/F1/

Normally the DICOM images are all individual files in a subfolder that the embedded viewer knows where to look automatically. With OsiriX and other 3rd party viewers, you may have to tell them what folder to look in. The folder name usually is not obvious, with the GE example showing the folder of DICOM images being titled "A". Look for a folder like that, but the naming/structure varies from one vendor to the next. With an MRI, you could have anywhere from a hundred images or so to a thousand or so, depending on the study. The images MIGHT have the extension ".DCM", but very likely have no extension at all. If you find a folder that looks promising, point the software to it.

EDIT: I just gave Horos a whirl on a disc I have here at home, and I got no password prompts. It also loaded up my study just fine when I told it to "browse" the disc. I didn't have to navigate the disc to find the right folder. Horos "should" be able to just find those images in the same manner. Maybe your images are in that password-protected zip file. To be honest, I've always thought these discs should be protected in some manner. Maybe it's different in the UK and they are?

 

[davowolf]

I used this, http://www.osirix-viewer.com/osirix/patients/, having put the Horos thing to one side.

However I'm still not getting anywhere ;I did used the H p/w which seemed to do something but I didn't see DICOM files anywhere, just zip files on my desktop which seem inert.

In the meantime I'm still trying to get my Canon MP640 to work; trying to run the set-up disc, it invokes theunarchiver ! I think I'm going mad. How can I uninstall this ? There doesn't seem to be an option for this.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I used this, http://www.osirix-viewer.com/osirix/patients/, having put the Horos thing to one side.

However I'm still not getting anywhere ;I did used the H p/w which seemed to do something but I didn't see DICOM files anywhere, just zip files on my desktop which seem inert.

I think we're running in circles here. Who told you to use Unarchiver and OsiriX in the first place? Even if it was the "hospital", in reality very very few have an official support route for anything outside of Windows. Whoever told you to try these things may simply taking a stab in the dark as a Mac user in their personal life who knows/heard of a few things, but hasn't actually tried it under these specific circumstances. The clerical staff who routinely make and distribute these discs aren't IT people who would even have a qualified solution. And even the IT staff in most places won't have a qualified solution outside of what they provide and support on that disc. If a tech who performs these exams told you this... again, not necessarily a qualified solution. All I and others here can vouch for is that Horos and OsiriX should be able to view the contents of that disc with no trouble or effort at all. The need for a password is clearly complicating things, and it appears that neither of these apps support viewing images embedded inside a zip file, or at least not a password-protected one. If the disc has embedded software, it certainly is designed to handle it, but doesn't do a Mac user any good, thus the need for workarounds that may not have been thoroughly vetted/tested/thought out in advance by the "hospital".

That all said, I think we are all on the right track, but may simply not be using the Unarchiver correctly, or maybe it's just not quite the right tool. If it unzipped the "master" zip file, and gave you more zip files, then it would seem that each subset of images is in their own zip file (there are multiple "series" of images in an MRI scan, and each set is normally in its own folder on a disc, something I overlooked earlier). You can keep unzipping these sub-zip files, but this will get messy. For each sub-zip file, you may need to make sure the contents go in a folder named the same as that zip file (minus the extension) you pulled them from.

If you want to try something else to look inside that zip file, try BetterZip. It will open up the archive in a window and let you see what's inside of it. Enter the password you were provided with if/when prompted. If you are able to browse the zip file and copy anything out of it after entering the password that was provided, then we'll KNOW that the password is correct at least. You can also extract everything out by drag/drop.

In the meantime I'm still trying to get my Canon MP640 to work; trying to run the set-up disc, it invokes theunarchiver ! I think I'm going mad. How can I uninstall this ? There doesn't seem to be an option for this.

Just move it to the Trash.

 

[IWT]

All I and others here can vouch for is that Horos and OsiriX should be able to view the contents of that disc with no trouble or effort at all.

by Lifeisabeach.

Totally agree!

did used the H p/w which seemed to do something

by davowolf

Can you be more specific? I know this stressing you; and frustrating us as well, I can tell you. But I feel we may not be far away.

May I just confirm: you got the "secret" OsiriX, installed, opened & ran it; used the Import option found in File > Import > Dicom Files - as per this image:



Then you navigated to the CD, clicked Import and chose Copy Files. Was it at this point that you were asked for a PW? And in what way did it "seem to do something"?

Ian

 

[Lifeisabeach]

I've given some more thought on how to manage this if the password proves to be correct. If it does, I'm going to have to recommend using The Unarchiver to do the extractions if there are multiple zip files inside the zip file. With the settings that I'm going to review here, this will ensure that all zip files will be extracted in-place with the extracted folder having the same name as the zip file itself. First, open The Unarchiver and go to its settings. Make any changes needed to match the screen shot below:



Once done, quit The Unarchiver. Next, drag the zip file off the DICOM disc you have to a location of your choosing on your Mac's drive. The Desktop will do. Once copied, open that copy with The Unarchiver. If it takes the password, you will have a folder in place of the zip file but otherwise with the same name. Open the folder. If there are more zip files, repeat. Once there are no more zip files, you can try using OsiriX on the master folder. Here's a screen cap of a disc of my own showing the folder on the CD:



The files you see on the far right are the DICOM image files. Each of those folders you see numbered 2522, 2523, etc all have images in them. I copied the master folder, 2521, to my Desktop, then told Horos to "Import Files" from its menu, and browsed to that master folder and clicked "Open". OsiriX will have something similar (I don't have it at the moment... my copy was outdated, but follow Ian's instructions). I told it to just "Copy Links", and voila... it saw all the images in the subfolder and loaded them up.

Another little power tip... all those files you see that have no extension? Use a renaming tool to add the extension .dcm. Now any application that recognizes DICOM images will be able to load any individual picture. I used to have a general graphics viewer that recognized DICOM images, but darned if I can recall what it was. You don't NEED to do this, but if you plan to keep the files on your computer, it's tidier and less confusing IMO to have an identifying extension on them.